Turning Science and Technology Green: Sustainable Development and Engineering Education Andrew Jamison Aalborg University

Based on: PROCEED (a Program of Research on Challenges and Opportunities in Engineering Education in Denmark)

Introducing PROCEED A ”strategic alliance” among researchers at: four universities: Aalborg, Århus, DTU and Roskilde and four fields: cultural and intellectual history engineering education research philosophy of technology and science STS and engineering studies

PROCEED Work plan Jan-Aug 2010 – planning and initiation Sept 2010 – Dec 2012 – thematic research Jan 2012 – Aug 2013 – outreach activities Jan Dec 2013 – final reporting, conference

Thematic Projects A. Challenges and responses in historical perspective B. Curriculum design and learning outcomes C. Models and simulations in engineering D. Design capabilities and engineering practices in industry E. Integrating contextual knowledge into engineering education

Challenges Facing Science and Engineering Environmental challenges – how to deal with environmental deterioration, energy and other resource exploitation and climate change Societal challenges – how to deal with the permeation of our societies by scientific ”facts” and technological ”artifacts” in socially responsible ways Technological challenges – how to deal with the emergence of new fields of ”technoscience” that combine science and technology in new ways

A market-oriented, or commercial strategy: emphasizing entrepreneurship and innovation An academic-oriented, or professional strategy: focusing on expertise and independence A socially-oriented, or integrative strategy : combining scientific and technical education with cultural understanding Contending Response Strategies

Contending Challenge Perceptions The commercial, or business strategy: Challenges seen as external, stemming from globalization and a need to improve ”competitiveness” The professional, or academic strategy: Challenges seen as internal, an ”identity crisis” among engineers and a need for new kinds of expertise The social, or integrative strategy: Challenges seen as both internal and external and a need to integrate cultural awareness into engineering

Product-driven, ”technical fixing” the engineer as consultant, or entrepreneur Project-driven, ”modelling and simulation” the engineer as an expert, or applied scientist Problem-driven, ”hybrid imagining” the engineer as change agent, or citizen Based on Different Conceptions of Engineering

Transdisciplinarity, or mode 2: externally-driven ”systems of innovation” Disciplinarity, or mode 1: ”traditional” science and engineering Interdisciplinarity, or mode 3: cross-fertilization, hybridization … and Contending “Modes” of Knowledge Production

Transdisciplinarity, or ”mode 2” ”Knowledge which emerges from a particular context of application with its own distinct theoretical structures, research methods and modes of practice but which may not be locatable on the prevailing disciplinary map.” Michael Gibbons et al, The New Production of Knowledge (1994)

transgressing established forms of quality control ”a drift of epistemic criteria” (Elzinga) transcending human limitations ”converging technologies” (bio, info, cogno, nano) neglecting the broader public, or social interest ”academic capitalism”: engineering in the private interest (over)emphasis on commercialization propagation of competitiveness rather than cooperation A Tendency to Hubris

The challenges primarily responded to by niche-seeking among scientists and engineers A reconfiguration of established scientific and engineering fields: ”subdisciplinarity” or multidisciplinarity Reassertion of professional values and academic, or scientific norms A continuing belief in separating the ”texts” of science and engineering from broader cultural contexts The Forces of Habit(us), or ”Mode 1”

“A discipline is defined by possession of a collective capital of specialized methods and concepts, mastery of which is the tacit or implicit price of entry to the field. It produces a ‘historical transcendental,’ the disciplinary habitus, a system of schemes of perception and appreciation (where the incorporated discipline acts as a censorship).” Pierre Bourdieu, Science of Science and Reflexivity (2004) The Discipline as Habitus

Problem-driven, rather than disciplinary, or market-driven A focus on processes of socio-cultural change Reflective, rather than explanatory or commercial ambition Participatory, interventionist methods Personal engagement in what is studied Change-Oriented Research, or ”Mode 3”

Fostering a Hybrid Imagination At the discursive, or macro level connecting technical solutions explicitly to social and environmental problems: turning engineering green At the institutional, or meso level organizing spaces for collective learning across faculties and societal domains: encouraging cross-fertilization At the personal, or micro level combining scientific-technical competence with socio- cultural understanding: ”mixing the modes”

Contending Approaches to Sustainability Research and Education sustainability s&t green business green engineering Main scientific commercial contextual focus research innovation appropriation Types ofprofessional, managerial, situated, Knowledge (sub)disciplinary transdisciplinary cross-disciplinary Forms of ”by the book”, ”by doing”, ”in context”, learningacademic practical participatory Identity, expert, entrepreneur, concerned citizen, social role policy adviser project manager change agent Contexts of governments companies communities application (”state”) (”market”) (”civil society”)

Approaches to teaching contextual knowledge in Aalborg educational strategy Commercial, transdisciplinarity Professional, sub-disciplinarity Integrative, interdisciplinarity rationale Contextual knowledge is for cultivating entrepeneurship Contextual knowledge is for habituating students in the profession Contextual knowledge is for fostering a hybrid imagination story-line of technological change Economic innovation Social constructionCultural appropriation main contents innovation and management studies, market analysis Philosophy of science and S&T studies, actor and network analysis History of S&T and cultural studies, technology assessment

Teaching Contextual Knowledge in Aalborg a part of problem-based learning (PBL) courses of lectures and supportive advising component of first-year engineering project work longtime, habitual difficulties in being accepted but sometimes it really works!

By Tore Jesper Andersen Christopher Duun Christian Holt Simon Gade Thomsen Theis Simonsen Ulrik Landberg Stephansen Anders Bundgård Sørensen A good example:

From the synopsis: “This report concerns the problems with global warming and investigates how dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) might solve some of these. The report starts from IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report and analyzes the current global warming discussion. Next the possible technological solutions to the global warming problem is briefly described, and the DSSC is described in detail…. “

Schematic representation of the operation principle

Experimental apparatus for testing efficiency

Technology assessment, or SWOT analysis

A Cultural Approach to Engineering Education Engineering problems formulated in cultural terms ”Situated learning” of technical, or engineering skills Contextual knowledge an integral part of curriculum Ongoing interaction between engineering and humanities A fostering of techno-cultural competencies

The Alley Flat Initiative grew out of a Sustainable Design Studio in the School of Architecture and Planning, at the University of Texas, organized by Professor Steven Moore and guest professor Sergio Palleroni Another example: The Alley Flat Initiative

The UT Center for Sustainable Development, the Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation, the Austin Community Design and Development Center. The initial goal of the project was to build two prototype alley flats (aka granny flats)- one for each of two families in East Austin - that would showcase both the innovative design and environmental sustainability features of the alley flat designs. A collaboration between

Moving into the second alley flat... Professor Steven Moore

The long-term objective of the Alley Flat Initiative is to create an adaptive and self-perpetuating delivery system for sustainable and affordable housing in Austin. The "delivery system" would include not only efficient housing designs constructed with sustainable technologies, but also innovative methods of financing and home ownership that benefit all neighborhoods in Austin.

More examples: Juan Lucena, Jen Schneider, and Jon Leydens (Colorado School of Mines), Engineering and Sustainable Community Development (Morgan & Claypool 2010)

and, even more ambitiously: Arizona State University, with the first School of Sustainability in the United States, offering a wide range of courses, degree programs and ”green campus” initiatives

Sustainabilty at the University of British Columbia, housed at the greenest building in North America